Disney-owned networks are now considering the option of running Spanish language ads on English television, according to Variety.
The consideration follows ABC (whose parent company is Disney) airing an ad for the Oscars featuring Spanish. Normally, those types of ads would feature subtitles.
“That has been our policy and we are looking to challenge that, when we have the right ad and the right partner, and potentially do things differently,” Rita Ferro, who oversees ad sales for all of Disney’s TV properties, told Variety.
The change could apply to all Disney TV networks, including ESPN and Freeform.
“As more Spanish-speaking consumers in the U.S. watch a broader range of TV programs, a sales pitch might just be the same in any language,” reports Variety. “Nearly one-quarter of Americans between the ages of 6 and 34 are Hispanic or of Latin origin. … Meanwhile, 13% of Americans aged 35 or older are Hispanic, compared with 12% five years prior.”
Diego Scotti, Verizon’s chief marketing officer, says that people become more “culturally fluid” beyond Millennials and Gen-Z. “The older generation still consumes media in-language, but when you are talking about Millennials and Gen-Z people, they are definitely more culturally fluid,” he told Variety. “They move in and out of different groups. They identify with more than one culture.”
Disney is not the only corporation making this shift. Variety noted that it is a broader industry pattern that includes an array of different cultures:
Madison Avenue has in recent years broadened the content of its commercials to match changing U.S. demographics. In decades past, seeing anything but a Caucasian male or female pitching a car or a can of soda might have been shocking. Ads in recent years, however, have featured same-sex couples, marriages between people of different races or creeds and people with physical challenges. It’s the latest signal that advertisers are grappling to keep up with an American consumer base that has become increasingly diverse.
Various marketers have tested ads featuring snippets of different languages for general audiences. Coca-Cola did it to memorable effect in 2014 with a Super Bowl commercial featuring the voices of children singing “America the Beautiful” in seven different languages. CBS has run Spanish-language ads in the past during events such as the Grammys, according to a person familiar with the matter.
None of that means, however, that advertisers have dropped pursuing revenue on Spanish-speaking outlets like Univision or NBCUniversal’s Telemundo. Larry Chiagouris, a professor of marketing at Pace University’s Lubin School of Business, told Variety that Spanish ads on Spanish TV are still the most efficient way to corner that demographic. “Advertising in Spanish is still most efficiently done via Spanish language programming,” he said.
Despite that, advertisers have much to gain by providing Spanish ads in English language markets due to the overall size of the audience. It also helps to make the ad more memorable to those who watch it. The thinking goes: If a Spanish speaker sees a Spanish ad in an English market, the novelty factor will catch the viewer’s attention.
“My hope is some of the archaic rules that still exist in the marketplace around use of subtitles that are very rigid would eventually change for the whole industry,” Scotti told Variety. “I think the whole world needs to think differently about what advertisers can do.”
